One of my favorite journalists, Thomas Sowell, once said that some books you write for pleasure, and others you write out of a sense of duty, because there are things to be said—-and other people have better sense than to say them.  That expresses my thoughts as I write this blog.  Initially, I destroyed the first draft, but after further thought……………………

Living on a college campus, The University of the South, is filled with activities; athletics, performing arts, visiting scholars, special seminars, and the list goes on.  There is not a lack of things to do. Each Monday I meet with a group of men and on Fridays June and I meet with a co-educational group.  The purpose of both of these meetings is fellowship, exchange of ideas, current events and to socialize.  The groups are comprised of intelligent, articulate, well-read individuals. The political, social and religious persuasions of the groups would be classified as progressive (I have changed the name to regressive or revisionist).  I have been labeled a traditionalist. On more than one occasion I have felt like a voice in the wilderness.

It has not been too many years ago our culture had as a baseline the Judeo-Christian principles.  They were the established norm.  Not so today.  The same principles that were the bedrock of the “American Way” have now become a subculture.  I have come to the conclusion we have exchanged “Christ” for nothing.  We hold an unshakable, if often unconscious, faith in nothing.  The current term for this nothingness is nihilism. The new culture’s chief moral value is to have the absolute liberty of personal volition, the power of each of us to choose what he or she believes, wants, needs or must possess.  This is followed by a desire to seize, accept or reject, want or not want and not to obey. Making this situation more severe are impulses and decisions becoming our moral index—-“if it feels good, do it,”  “if you don’t get caught it is not wrong.”

This new culture has a second major component and it is relativism. We are adrift upon the sea of relativism and it is shipwrecking our children, families, churches and country. You see, relativism is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity.  Everything has subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration.  Relativism is a denial of absolute truth which leads to a denial of the possibility of sin and God.

Enter the law of the harvest.  A concept that is easy to define:  “you reap what you sow.” If you plant cantaloupes, you get cantaloupes.  If you plant tomatoes you get tomatoes.  If you plant violence, you get violence.   The law is universal and has been with us since the beginning of time. An overwhelming majority of young adults and school age children believe ‘truth’ is relative.  These individuals have been taught to fear absolutism because it leads to intolerance. I am saddened by this change in our thought pattern as it reinforces our relentless march to Sodom and Gomorrah.

A classic example of the law of the harvest appeared when the White House was lit up in rainbow lights to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same sex marriage.  This picture saddened and angered me.  How did we arrive at this place?  I should not have been surprised because we long ago sowed the seeds that eventually bore the fruit we see in the Supreme Court’s decision.  Actually, it is not so much the seed that was sown as the seed that has not been sown.

It is not hard to understand the change in our culture and the change of basic values to which our children have gravitated.  For decades and many generations, the majority of our nation’s children have been educated in schools which are not free to teach God’s word in any subject.  Just think, God’s word is absent for eight hours a day, five days a week, nine months a year for 13 years and that doesn’t include four to eight years of college.  Seventeen to twenty-one years of a secular education, not counting the influence of all forms of media, WILL produce secularized students and a secularized country.

Our culture has become a subculture largely because we have remained in our ‘holy huddles’ while our society has fallen into a deep moral pit. We must impress upon the parents of the current generation the importance of being their child’s teacher. You cannot delegate the raising of your child(ren) You, mamma and daddy, are your child’s first and most important teacher.    ………………….and when they grow old they shall be like their teacher.

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